Grammatical categories and Luke 6:12b

Richard Ghilardi qodeshlayhvh at juno.com
Wed Jul 25 22:52:03 EDT 2001


Dear B-greekers,

On Tue, 24 Jul 2001 15:56:45 -0400 Jonathan Robie writes:
> Here's a traditional example from Chomsky:
> 
> Time flies like an arrow.
> Fruit flies like a banana.
> 
> The native speaker grasps the meaning, and knows that "flies" works 
> differently in the two sentences, but does not know why. The native 
> speaker of NT Greek could probably grasp the various meanings of the 
> Genitive, without being able to state them or the rules for >
differentiating them.

[Ghilardi]

The first sentence of course means that those sorts of flies which feed
on time also favor arrows because, like time, they are swift. The second
one means this: All fruits navigate the air in pretty much the same way.
So naturally fruit in general will navigate the air in much the same way
as any particular fruit, say a banana.

Did I get it right?    ;-)

Yours in His grace,

Richard Ghilardi -- qodeshlayhvh at juno.com
New Haven, CT USA
Nibai kaurno hwaiteis gadriusando in airtha gaswiltith,
silbo ainata aflifnith: ith jabai gaswiltith, manag akran bairith.



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